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PLEASE READ: Posting and membership guidelines

If you like or own cavaliers, or just want to learn more about them, and are a per owner, you are very welcome to Cavalier Talk. Please note there are two limitations on board membership: this is a pet owner board and not intended for breeders (there are breeder-focused forums out there) and I also will not allow pet owners to discuss breeding their own cavaliers *at all*. Reasons for this are noted elsewhere in more detail.

The Cavalier Talk board was set up in March 2005, and is run by me -- Karlin Lillington -- a (multiple) cavalier owner. An ex-pat Canadian-American based in Dublin, Ireland, I used to run Irish Cavalier Rescue, www.ckcsrescue.com, and also have the CKCS Syringomyelia Infosite, www.smcavalier.com. By profession, I am a journalist and broadcaster, specialising in technology and science. I run the board with the help of my hand-picked moderator team .

This board is your community. You can post a little or a lot, or not at all, whatever pleases you. You cannot post however unless you register, and by registering, you acknowledge that 1) you are not a breeder and accept that 2) the final determination of appropriateness of either board behaviour or a given post is up to Admin (meaning me) and/or moderators. Copyright for individual posts does belong to the author of the post so if you (whether a member of the board or not) wish to crosspost or forward, please follow generally accepted netiquette and ask the poster's permission.

NB: Please do not use multiples of the letter x in front of or behind your username. ISPs and spam software will immediately pick that up as a potential pornography site and filter/block mails so you never get them, or bounce any notification emails sent by the board, back to me. I will automatically delete multiple X's from usernames. The board automatically rejects on registration, usernames that begin with numbers or characters other than letters as well.

You can set your account to hide your email from public viewing but you need a working email address in order to register.

1) The board has an open atmosphere and most topics are considered acceptable, as are disagreements between members and debates. Everyone -- including Admin and moderators -- is entitled to his/her own opinion -- within some constraints.

2) While a large degree of latitude is allowed for personal styles of expression, personal attacks, namecalling, and disparagement directed at other board members -- singly or collectively -- is not acceptable. This includes sending offensive PMs to board members, or email through the board that I consider to be offensive or overly distressing to the recipient.

3) Spamming (junk advertising) is not allowed -- either through posts or through PMs. I have very tight controls on the board that make it difficult for spammers to register in the first place, but please notify me or a moderator immediately if you are spammed or see spam messages.

4) No critical discussions of individual breeders please. It is also not acceptable to name individuals or kennels that you believe may be operating puppy mills/puppy farms or backyard breeders, as loathsome as such people may be. This is not because I believe such topics should be censored, but because the legal climate in which boards operate remains murky, and libel and defamation law varies hugely between jurisdictions (meaning between nations and even US states). I am not giving such bottom feeders the chance to close down a board or go after the board community. You are welcome to take such discussions off the board. General discussions about what makes breeders good and bad, puppy mills/farms, and regulation or the lack of it is fine.

5) Because placing pictures in signatures tends to split boards between those who hate 'em and those who love 'em, I have this compromise in place: no images in sigs (they are blocked and won't show up), but avatars are enabled (see your profile). We also have several galleries for pictures so you can post lots and lots of pictures. And you have a personal Member Page where you can add photos of your dogs, yourself, or anything you'd like, create a blog about your dog, and otherwise develop your own personal space.

6) I don't allow puppies or dogs to be offered for sale on this site. I don't allow litters to be advertised here or discussions on breeding advice or how to breed or plans to breed as this isn't a breeding discussion site and there are other places (basically, a responsible mentor, or other responsible breeders) to ask and receive such information. If you need to get basic information on breeding from a discussion board, you shouldn't be breeding, at least not yet. For more information on this posting restriction and reasons for it, see: http://board.cavaliertalk.com/showthread.php?t=17561.

I do currently limit the number of breeder members, as this is a pet-owner focused board. However, information regarding rescue dogs and anything breed rescue related is welcomed, and can by emailed or PMd to me by any breed club rescue member and I will post it.

7) And finally... my disclaimer: This board, the board owner and individuals who post cannot be held liable for advice offered and followed here. Individuals using the board do so understanding that any behaviour, diet or health issue should be assessed by a trained behaviouralist or a veterinarian before following advice given by non-professionals. Advice offered here is the opinion of the poster and not a substitute for professional advice. Simply by coming to this board, and whether you register or not, you have accepted these terms of use.

Enjoy yourselves -- I've rarely ever had to ask anyone to restrain themselves or go away on other boards that I moderate, and haven't had to do so with any frequency here, either.

How private are PMs (private messages)?

I've been asked before about PMs and explained how they work but this was quite some time ago -- so it is timely to do so again. Having had someone recently ask me to clarify the situation with PMs and if their content can be accessed and viewed (for example if there were a court case and they were wanted as evidence):

1) Your PMs are a matter of PERMANENT record affiliated with the site, and are NOT fully private because they remain a part of this site's records and databases, even if you delete them. The full content goes into the database and remains there and is fully searchable, PM by PM. This is different from email, which is carried external to the site (though internet service providers tend to have the content records of emails for quite a long period after they are sent. But that is a different privacy issue).

2) If I were asked to produce the site records for legal reasons, the entire contents of all PMs ever sent through the site could be instantly produced and printed out (though by now it would run to several hundred pages!).

3) Moderators cannot view database content but I, as admin for the full site, can. This is true of any board, anywhere -- the full content of PMs is always available to anyone with administrator privileges.

4) In practice, admins do not go digging through PMs, though they could. Most, including me, consider it an ethical issue and will not. Life is also really too short to wade through database tables seeking other people's messages. It is also difficult and awkward and time-consuming to find an individual message or poster.

Nonetheless many people may feel uncomfortable sending PMs knowing they remain a matter of record, can be viewed by me, and are not deleteable.

That's why I am again clarifying this point and also cautioning people not to put anything in a PM that they never want anyone else to read or that could be potentially incriminating to themselves or others. While a PM would not be admissible generally as defamation (it is a private, not a public statement), it would definitely be admissible in a court case regarding a disputed payment, disputed ownership, harrassment, intention to defraud, etc. If I were subpoenaed for board content, most likely I would have to surrender those database files.

In conclusion: It is wise to consider 'private' messages on a board as you would 'private' emails sent through your workplace, which generally remain the property of your workplace and are archived in their entirety for seven years (or more). There are records kept, it is part of the way programmes like board or email list software operate, and this method of operation is consistent across all available programmes. On balance I have always felt more people like to use PMs than are worried about the (lack of) privacy aspect so I keep the PM function activated, though it can be turned off.

It you want to more fully preserve your privacy, then do not send PMs through the board. Send a personal email to the person. Often board members list an email address as well or you can PM someone and ask for an email address. More information on protecting your privacy online: